KIRKUS REVIEW

“Inspired” is the key word here, for contributors have been
encouraged to interpret their remit even more broadly than in the editors’
previous two collections (In the Company of Sherlock Holmes, 2014, etc.).

John Connolly sets the tone by confronting Holmes and Watson,
enshrined in a magical library after Holmes’ death, with their inferior
post-Reichenbach avatars. David Morrell, Jonathan Maberry, and William Kent
Krueger walk similar metafictional tightropes when they arrange debates between
Arthur Conan Doyle and a spectral Holmes over spiritualism, bring C. Auguste
Dupin to console Watson at Holmes’ empty grave, and present a
child-psychologist Watson providing therapy to a boy who believes he’s Sherlock
Holmes. Other contributors briskly update the Great Detective. Meg Gardiner’s
sleuth investigates a breach in computer security; Hank Phillippi Ryan’s
Annabelle Holmes follows a trail of pictogram emails to a missing fiancee; Gary Phillips’
Sherlock, in a rayon shirt and bell-bottoms, investigates the assassination of
an iconic civil rights leader; Cory Doctorow explores the problem of a
conscience-driven leaker of secret intelligence. Meanwhile, back in the
Victorian era, Tasha Alexander sketches a deft and funny prequel to “A Scandal
in Bohemia,” Dana Cameron’s free-wheeling Watson recounts Holmes’ search for a
hidden legacy, and Tony Lee and Bevis Musson give Mrs. Hudson a thimble-sized
comic-book case more notable for visual style than narrative invention.
Sherlock is channeled by Catriona McPherson’s lady’s maid, Deborah Crombie’s
cheeky goddaughter Sherry Watson, Anne Perry’s TV Holmes, Denise Mina’s
not-a-witch Shirley, and Michael Scott’s Dublin madam, who assists the police
in their investigation of a celebrated real-life theft. Although most of these
tales are more notable for their high concepts than the ways they’re worked
out, Hallie Ephron’s tale of a movie actress who once played Irene Adler and is
now understudying a much younger Irene is a delight from beginning to end.

Though the level of inspiration in individual stories varies
widely, every fan will find different reasons to cheer. And they’ll all marvel
at the inventive range of this salute to the greatest of all fictional
detectives.

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